Malcolm Guite on the faith and poetry of Samuel Taylor Coleridge

On the podcast this week, Malcolm Guite talks about the faith of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the anniversary of whose death was marked on Monday (25 July). Part of the interview featured on the very first episode of the Church Times Podcast, in 2017, shortly after the publication of his book Mariner: A voyage with Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Hodder & Stoughton) (Books, 10 February 2017). “Coleridge roots our own capacity to know through the imagination with the divine imagination. And he sees the imagination with which we perceive the world as an echo in the finite mind of the eternal and infinite act of creation in the divine”, Malcolm says. “That’s dynamite, that’s an amazing thing he’s actually saying: anybody engaged in a moment of artistic apprehension and intuition is echoing the way God made the world and helping to see it.” After the interview, Malcolm reads a sonnet that he wrote for Coleridge. It was recorded in St Michael’s, Highgate, in north London, where Coleridge is buried. Malcolm’s most recent book is Lifting the Veil: Imagination and the Kingdom of God (Canterbury Press) (Faith feature, 13 May, Books 1 July). The Revd Dr Malcolm Guite is a Life Fellow of Girton College, Cambridge, and writes the weekly Poet’s Corner column for the Church Times. Try 10 issues of the Church Times for £10 or get two months access to our website and apps, also for £10. Go to churchtimes.co.uk/new-reader.